Adoption of Engineering Practices for Maximization of · PDF fileAdoption of Engineering...

Adoption of Engineering Practices for Maximization of Solvent Recovery

Equinox Software & Services Pvt. Ltd., Pune

Sanjiv M. Bachal, Alok Pandit, Shailesh Sakarkar & Deepak Seth

© 2009 EQUINOX. All rights reserved 2

Agenda

1. Introducing Equinox

2. The importance of solvents

3. – A threat to green environment?

4. Engineering practices to manage

5. Case studies

6. Conclusion

7. Vote of Thanks


Brief Profile


Brief Profile

• One of the leading company in the area of Model Based Process Consulting, Process IT Solutions and Services

• Delivered 70,000+ Hours of Consulting Assignments in last

18 months

• Strategic Alliances with world leaders in process IT solutions

• Delivery Centre – Pune (India)

• A mix of people, with concentrated process expertise and backed by a catalyst group of global consultants

• Global customers in UAE, Malaysia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,

Italy, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Netherland

• ISO 9001 certification in-process

• Member of − Chamber of Commerce (Maharashtra State) , India − NASSCOM, India


Equinox Offerings


Our Offerings – Core Services

Engineering

Supply Chain

Manufacturing

Application Development & Maintenance

Learning , Skill Development &

Certification

Business Process Consulting

Conceptual Design

Process Modeling

Integrated Cost Modeling

Operator Training Simulator (OTS)

Energy Studies

Real Time Information Management System (Historian)

Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS)

Data Reconciliation & Yield Accounting

Advanced Process Control (APC)

Supply Chain Planning

Demand Management

Plant Planning & Scheduling

Distribution (Primary, Secondary, Retail)

• Modeling: Aspen Plus,

Polymer Plus, HYSYS,

Dynamics, PRO/II,

Unisim, gPROMS, Icarus,

OLGA, Petrosim

• OTS: Dynsim, Unisim,

HYSYS

• MES: Historian (IP.21,

PHD, PI), Data Recon

(Advisor, PB),

Visualization (Aspen RBV,

Bflex)

• APC: DMC+, Aspen IQ,

Aspen Watch, RMPCT

• P&S: PIMS, RPMS,

GRTMPS, Aspen SCM

Applications & Software Packages


Customer List

(Partial)


Selected Customers

Oil & Gas


Selected Customers

Engineering & Consulting


Selected Customers

Chemicals


• Why solvents are needed: − Solubilizing the reactants

− Facilitate reaction

− Facilitate heat transfer/control

− Purification

− etc.

• Solvent constitute typically 80-90 wt% of the process mass

• Contribute about 15-25 % to the cost of manufacturing of Active ingredient

• Number of solvents used in a API unit could be any where in range of 10-50

• Number of used solvent stream could be > 100

Importance of Solvents


Spent Solvent Management

Solvent disposal Strategy Developed Economies

India

Sell-off used solvent Low High

Incineration Considerable Low

Re-processing or recycling Moderate to High Low-moderate

Losses# Low to Moderate – stricter norms

High

# Not exactly a disposal strategy


• Solvents never ends up pure at the end of the process

• Strict procedural practices preventing inter-mixing of solvents

• Solvents required generally have polarity resulting in complex mixture – with water and with other solvents

• Vicissitude nature of product line

Solvent Recovery - Complexities


Green Factor

• Greenness factor E-factor or MI ( mass intensity)

• Amount of waste generate per unit mass of API produced. Typically, ranges from 25 to over 100

• Green metrics rarely on radar of small & medium manufacturers

Solvent management is critical in improving the Greenness factor


• Lack of management mindshare − Other more important process related problems to tackle

− Easy way out

− Lack of incentives - fresh versus recycle

• Management apprehension in investing in the technologies due lack of clarity on the ROI − Lack of clarity in their application & efficacy

− High cost of licenses

• Lack of skill to handle computer aided technologies − Training initiatives

− Attrition

• Primitive facility − Manual operation

− Rudimentary instrumentation

Hurdles for Solvent Recovery Initiatives


Engineering Practices

• Engineering Practices, the questions:

−How are the solvent streams managed in the unit? • Dedicated process team

• Experience over the years

• Scientific tool

−Are there any rules (thumb rule) being followed for segregation of the waste solvent streams? • Handbooks of solvent

• MSDS

• Etc

−How is the solvent recovery system designed & operated? • Trial & error

• Literature input


An Indian Experience

• A case study is discussed here to highlight the efficacy of applying engineering practices to improve /enable recovery of solvent in an existing batch distillation plant


• Client wanted to use the existing batch distillation setup to recovery Ether at > 95 wt% purity from a mixture constituting of :

Cont…

Component Wt%

Ether 65

Acetate 33

H2O 1

Low Boilers 1

Problem Definition


Ether-Ester-Water Problem Summary

• Current & Desired Ether recovery :

Component Feed Wt%

Current purity wt%

Desired purity wt%

Ether 65 88 > 94

Ester 33 11 < 5

H2O 1 0.5 < 0.7

Low Boilers 1 0.5 < 1

Ether Recovery

~ 85 wt% > 85


Solution Strategy

−Technical Feasibility with available hardware

−If feasible, optimum process conditions to get desired purity

−If infeasible - Alternate method of distillation (without any hardware change) to achieve the desired purity

−If infeasible with alternate method - modification of existing hardware to achieve the desired purity

Cont…


Two azeotropes formed at the operating pressure:

System Evaluation - Azeotrope Analysis


Ternary Map (M ass B asis)

H2O ESTER

ETHER

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

System Evaluation – Ternary Diagram

Azeotrope

Azeotrope

Feed Composition

Material Balance LIne


System Evaluation – Ether-Ester x-y Diagram

Lack of curvature indicating difficult

separation


Conceptual Design

• Key points emerging from preliminary analysis:

−Both Ester and Ether form heterogeneous azeotrope with

water

−The Ester/water azeotrope is the minimum boiling type

− Difficult separation entailing high reflux ratio as the

column size is fixed


Ether-Ester-Water Result Summary

• Current & Simulated – Ether recovery with following composition using existing batch distillation facility:

Component Feed Wt%

Current purity wt%

Simulation results wt%

Ether 65 88 97

Ester 33 11 ~2.4

H2O 1 0.5 ~0.6

Low Boilers 1 0.5 Trace

Recovery Ether cut

~ 85 wt% ~ 97wt%


Simulation Interpretations to Achieve Desired Goal

• Increase moisture content in the initial charge from 1 to 3 wt %

• Water decanter for distillate

• Maintain reflux ratio between 3 to 4 for organic and 5 for aqueous phase


Conclusion

• A scientific approach to solvent handling system is need of hour

• Expertise and access to multiple simulation technologies is critical in devising an efficient solvent recovery system

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